We are continuing our Thursday tradition this week with another "If I had a Ballot." I'm actually excited to say that I've timed this perfectly (we'll have one week off between the "catchup period" of this and us incorporating this into our OVP Ballots each week as we'll now do this after every Best Picture in our series). But that actually lines up precisely with two weeks after my second vaccination shot, so a day off as I venture forth (masked, socially distanced) into the world for the first time in over a year feels earned. This week, we're going to look at 2009, and if you've forgotten the rules, these are what I would have chosen for the Oscars had I had a ballot. To see where I landed with Oscar's contests (which I have seen every single nominee for in these categories), check out the links at the bottom of the page.
(500) Days of Summer
Avatar
An Education
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Inglourious Basterds
Paranormal Activity
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire
The Secret in Their Eyes
A Single Man
The White Ribbon
Gold: I go back-and-forth on this one (I actually rewatched the top two films just so that I felt like I was making the right call), but I'll give this to The White Ribbon, a brilliant, moody picture about prejudice & betrayal on the cusp of World War I.
Silver: Close behind it is Avatar. The dialogue & acting may not be in the same league as The White Ribbon, but it's pure magic cinematically, a visual treat from start-to-finish from one of the most innovative men in modern movies.
Bronze: Quentin Tarantino found the perfect marriage of his brilliant, bold filmmaking style with the expanded budgets fame has afforded to him. Inglourious Basterds is bloody (very bloody) good fun.
James Cameron (Avatar)
Juan Jose Campanella (The Secret in Their Eyes)
Tom Ford (A Single Man)
Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Gold: I'm sticking with Haneke here, who has the difficult task of giving us a moody, desperate series of families that are interconnected in ways we can't always tell, and not giving us all of the answers (but upon rewatch, largely giving us all of the answers).
Silver: Cameron delivers a splendid triumph of visual effects, cutting edge technology, and a rich story. Avatar builds an entire world from nothing, something we seem incapable of doing in modern cinema, but looking at how special it is here, it's surely a task we should push for more often.
Bronze: No one makes a movie quite like Tarantino. Reined in by Sally Menke, Tarantino's last true masterpiece (to date) feels spry, wiry, and full of both whimsy & consequence.
Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
George Clooney (Up in the Air)
Colin Firth (A Single Man)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt ((500) Days of Summer)
Tahar Rahim (A Prophet)
Gold: Firth has two tasks in A Single Man. First, he has to find a way to meld into the distinctive environment Tom Ford has created for this character, a man living in a Vanity Fair ad page. Two, he has to give an unknowable character depth & resonance, bringing a larger-than-life script some grounding. Both are mission accomplished.
Silver: Rahim aces his work in, deteriorating like a French Michael Corleone before our eyes in A Prophet, his innocence moving away from him, but with it stripping his humanity like a piece of tape tearing away paint, rough & without warning.
Bronze: George Clooney embraces the darkness with this ruthless, soulless figure, a man who prides himself on giving pablum to the masses at the worst moments of their lives. Without a massive epiphany moment, Clooney is forced to rely on his own bag-of-tricks to give us Ryan's evolution, and as a result we get some of his best work.
Penelope Cruz (Broken Embraces)
Carey Mulligan (An Education)
Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)
Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)
Tilda Swinton (Julia)
Gold: Gabourey Sidibe inhabits Precious to the point that you'd almost assume this was her offscreen, so organic she is to the character (she isn't-any interview she's ever done has proven that). A moving, difficult turn breathing humanity into the type of figure the cinema oftentimes sidelines.
Silver: Tilda Swinton is breathtaking in Julia, a woman so at odds with her own situation she can't even tell when she's lying to herself. We've been on a Tilda renaissance for the past ten years or so, but let's be honest-this is the high point.
Bronze: Carey Mulligan announces herself in a very different vehicle than Sidibe. Here she plays a more traditional onscreen ingenue, but plays her differently...a little wiser, a little less naive, knowing but still able to understand what she's learning. A marvel.
Jim Broadbent (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)
Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds)
Burghart Klausner (The White Ribbon)
Heath Ledger (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus)
Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Gold: It's hard to tell if it's Waltz's fault or Hollywood's that this is the only role he seemed capable of playing in the years that followed, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't totally play the part of the diabolical, sadistic Nazi in Inglourious Basterds to a scene-stealing (in the correct way) tee.
Silver: Jim Broadbent is yet another actor who totally aced his Hogwarts exams. A narcissist with a terrible secret, he brings a shocking grace & candor to this role, playing a "good person" who was brought down by the allure of importance.
Bronze: Michael Fassbender takes Inglourious Basterds on its most succinct chapter as a devilishly handsome spy, giving us the kind of movie star charisma that announces a great new talent (and in this case, it was talent fulfilled).
Marion Cotillard (Nine)
Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air)
Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds)
Mo'Nique (Precious)
Julianne Moore (A Single Man)
Gold: So much has been written about Mo'Nique's Mary Jones in Precious, it's hard not to slip into hyperbole or feel you're overstating the work. But this is one of the best screen creations, a harrowing, human nightmare who haunts our title character. Mo'Nique makes sure you remember that for all of Mary's faults, society forgot her in the same way they did her daughter.
Silver: There's something so electric in what Marion Cotillard is doing in Nine that I'm surprised that more people don't discuss it amongst her best work. A neglected wife, knowing but still loving her obsessive husband, she provides the layers that the rest of the film can't muster.
Bronze: Julianne Moore always understands the assignment, and here she's given a difficult part. She has to play a woman who has been in a codependent relationship with a man she can't have, but has settled angrily for the (waning) attention he is able to provide her.
An Education
Precious
The Secret in Their Eyes
A Single Man
Up in the Air
Gold: The Secret in Their Eyes plays like a complicated drama, one with tons of hidden secrets, ones that not even the characters can understand about themselves. Those final scenes, though, when all is revealed, is when the majesty of this script starts to unfurl.
Silver: Rich, knowing dialogue ("I feel old, but not very wise") flows from Nick Hornby's An Education. Mulligan might be a worthy vessel, but this coming-of-age story gets its insights from his specific portrayal of young Jenny.
Bronze: Precious is unrelenting, but it also knows how to utilize its characters. Precious (the character) gives us the full weight of her life not through just her harrowing, sparing interactions with Mary Jones, but also by showing us glimpses into a happiness that continues to elude her.
(500) Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
A Prophet
The White Ribbon
Gold: Total dialogue gold from Tarantino here, bon mots & wordplay throughout...few writers have such distinct style, and Inglourious Basterds is him ripely taking advantage of the excellent cast he's assembled.
Silver: A total shiver goes down your spine with every conversation, but The White Ribbon doesn't let up, oftentimes dropping horrifying revelations in the middle of scenes, just to see if you're paying attention. The ending alone earns its nomination.
Bronze: Told out-of-order, this is a film that needs a screenwriter who is paying attention to where we're headed, but 500 Days of Summer has that at its helm, totally subverting (while ultimately playing into) the romantic comedy motif.
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Up
Gold: Laika pronounced its arrival with Coraline, a movie that gives us a fairy tale about a girl who doesn't appreciate her parents, and treats her to a world where everything is as she wishes it (or is it?). Teri Hatcher gives a totally underrated bit of vocal work as the ruthless "Other Mother."
Silver: The first ten minutes of Up are so damn good that you'd be forgiven thinking it's your favorite Pixar movie. As it is, it's a gorgeous, heartfelt film, with Pixar totally testing the limits of its child audience with a senior citizen protagonist (that goes a bit off the rails in the last act).
Bronze: A wry & witty script, Wes Anderson's distinctive world feels perfectly at home in the world of cartoons, though there are times when I wish he'd have gone with a more traditional vocal cast rather than his "spot the celebrity" route (so typical of his oeuvre).
Avatar
A Prophet
Sherlock Holmes
A Single Man
Up
Gold: No asset is greater in A Single Man's arsenal than its elegant, enigmatic score. In a movie that is about style-over-substance, this is the kind of musical interlude that shows how one can be both, giving us flourishes that fit the crisis of our main character.
Silver: Michael Giacchino creates one of Disney's most memorable pieces with "Married Life" as he somberly underscores the wonder of love. As I mentioned above, nothing quite compares to that moment the rest of the film, but it's so miraculous it feels fitting that this is what won Michael Giacchino his Oscar.
Bronze: A rowdy, action-packed mystery, Sherlock Holmes utilizes a series of unconventional instruments (most memorably a cimbalom and a broken pub piano) to create a raucous, steampunk beat.
"Almost There," (The Princess & the Frog)
"I See You," (Avatar)
"Smoke Without Fire" (An Education)
"The Weary Kind" (Crazy Heart)
"You've Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger" (An Education)
Gold: The whole score of Crazy Heart is filled with toe-tapping tunes, but Ryan Bingham delivers on the promise of "The Weary Kind," the sort of song that will change your life, by giving a tune that actually would do just that.
Silver: The tragic story of Duffy in real life makes it even harder to stomach when you see that she could make music this good after Rockferry. "Smoke Without Fire" is an electric lounge act, hanging over the whole of An Education.
Bronze: "You've Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger" fits the mood of An Education better (even if I stand behind this medal placement), with us wondering as the film progresses which character is leading which, making us question this theme.
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
The White Ribbon
Gold: In a movie that's largely about sound (and the way that breathing will ripple through an audience), The Hurt Locker delivers fully (that Oscar Best Picture wasn't going to happen for a movie that couldn't craft solid sound work).
Silver: No one quite knows how to do a song score like Quentin Tarantino, and this is some of his best musical incorporation. Think of the war paint "Cat People" sequence and the way that they use swift shuffles throughout the card game to underscore the tension.
Bronze: District 9's documentary aspect is reliant upon us having the sense that it's happening in real time. That requires constant background noise that doesn't distract or overpower the main plot. Watch any action movie, and you'll realize how hard that is to do, and why this picture stands out in such a regard.
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Gold: Oh wow. Avatar creates a fantasy world from nothing, and with that comes an enormous amount of sound design, in this case beautifully-orchestrated. The battle cry of the Toruk during the first flight sequence stands as the most thrilling scene in any movie in 2009, and the enchanted woods of Pandora are spectacular.
Silver: The terrifying howl of the bargain-basement monster movie aliens in District 9 are about the only rival I could come up with that might have made Avatar look backwards. Their consistent evolution as the film develops give it some of its more horrific angles.
Bronze: The explosions & manufactured battles of The Hurt Locker give it a neat balance with the quiet hum of some of the civilian scenes. You get a better sense of what always stays in the soldiers' ears out-of-combat, calling them even as they try to move on.
Avatar
Broken Embraces
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Inglourious Basterds
Sherlock Holmes
Gold: I am not shy about noticing the artistry in animated or visually-driven movies, and boy it's impossible to deny what's happening with Avatar, a gorgeous flourish of blue, violet, & magenta in every corner, making us pine for a world with such beauty bursting at its seams.
Silver: The theater scene (and what comes after) is the most noticeable effect of Inglourious Basterds, but really its everything in this movie, so carefully chosen to fit Tarantino's vision (and his tweaked reality) that hints at that ending coming (even if you don't expect it).
Bronze: Stuart Craig's vision of Harry Potter rarely ceases to wonder. Even if you don't count his repetition from previous films, the Budleigh Babberton sequence is marvelous, as are the nods to the clock tower & the Horcrux cave...truly eery stuff.
Avatar
Bright Star
Broken Embraces
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The White Ribbon
Gold: Some of the best parts of The White Ribbon reside in its cinematography. The movie is set on the eve of World War I, but cinematographer Christian Berger underlines a point of making the movie look very modern in its lensing, as if it could happen today (which is kind of the movie's point).
Silver: Bright Star, on the other hand, feels like it's pulled from a Keats poem, soft & filled with color & light from every angle. Both films fit the mood of their picture, here with brilliant, flowery beauty.
Bronze: The green & black mood of Half-Blood Prince not only borrows from the book's iconic cover, but it also gives us a darkening in the series, as it shifts toward its conclusion, leaving behind some of the childish light that filled its earlier chapters.
Bright Star
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
A Single Man
The Young Victoria
The White Ribbon
Gold: Janet Patterson finds inspiration in the trees & flowers of the forests our characters seem to so often stroll through in Bright Star, with even the men getting in on the cascade of colors on display in the picture.
Silver: Monique Prudhomme had the unenviable job of figuring out how to find some semblance between four different actors playing the same part. She does this so well in Imaginarium by only occasionally bending what each actor is wearing, adding touches to distinguish the personality of each performer, adding to the "pulled from the same trunk" vibe of the clothing budget.
Bronze: Sandy Powell is a goddess, and of course The Young Victoria has a lot of big, gigantic gowns (though never one that stands apart as the gown for my taste), but it's actually Powell's eye for male outfitting (look at what a dandy Rupert Friend's Prince Albert is) that sells the picture for me.
(500) Days of Summer
Avatar
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon
Gold: All of Quentin Tarantino's movies up-until 2009 are really the co-creation of Sally Menke, the fervent straight woman behind the mad genius. Menke does a painstaking job of piecing together Tarantino's vision, making each chapter connect without the audience noticing.
Silver: The documentary style employed by District 9 would become played out in the years that followed, no one quite capturing the horror of some of the long & medium shots that the editors use (with us catching horror in the periphery of our hero's life).
Bronze: The White Ribbon is, at its heart, a mystery, and mysteries that don't want to show you the criminal too soon need to be edited to perfection-giving us hints, morsels, and misdirects that read so well upon rewatch, but catch you off-guard upon your first glance.
District 9
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Inglourious Basterds
Nine
Star Trek
Gold: I mean, come on here...District 9 is some next level work with the makeup department. Even if some of the more impressive features of the film are coming from the special effects department, that doesn't negate the intricate, exhaustive transformations that the actors endured to make this movie so special.
Silver: The movie obviously has to navigate the similar looks of four different (very handsome, but in different ways) actors, but that's just the start of what Imaginarium is doing, pulling characters together as if they've been plucked from the pages of an illuminated manuscript.
Bronze: It's occasionally hard to understand whether you should give the makeup department or the casting director more credit for what's happening in Star Trek, as a new generation tries on the looks of a group of icons, but either way this is an achievement.
Avatar
District 9
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Gold: While you could point to a film like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes or Gravity as perhaps more important, Avatar ranks amongst the most impressive visual feats of the 21st Century, gorgeous, realistic CGI effects that blur the line between animation and reality. James Cameron sets the bar yet again.
Silver: Though it has neither the technology nor the budget to rival Avatar, District 9 still has an effects team that does what it's supposed to do-aid the picture. Here we get both nods to the monster horror films of the 1980's while also giving us a disgusting, frightening look at an alien ghetto.
Bronze: It's a tight race here, but I'm going to give it to Harry Potter over Star Trek, with the jaw-dropping cave sequence and the rain-soaked Quidditch match both standouts in a very good year for this category (possibly the best we've done so far for the My Ballots)?
Also in 2009: Picture,
Director,
Actress,
Actor,
Supporting Actress,
Supporting Actor,
Original Screenplay,
Adapted Screenplay,
Foreign Film,
Animated Feature,
Sound Mixing,
Sound Editing,
Original Score,
Original Song,
Art Direction,
Cinematography,
Costume,
Editing,
Visual Effects,
Makeup,
Previously in 2009
